City Council Meeting: March 25, 2025 Santa Monica, California RESOLUTION NUMBER ___________ (CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
PROTECTING ACCESS TO GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTHCARE AND
PREVENTING CITY RESOURCES FROM ASSISTING FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS
INTO TRANSGENDER, GENDER DIVERSE, AND INTERSEX PERSONS AND THEIR
HEALTHCARE
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica is committed to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and has a long and proud history of promoting equitable policies that protect our residents, whether over immigration status or for persons seeking reproductive healthcare such that the City does not allow law enforcement or City resources to aid federal investigations on these matters. This is a conscious choice to build trust between law enforcement and our immigrant community and medical professionals; and
WHEREAS, at its December 17, 2024 meeting, the Santa Monica City Council reasserted, by adopting a resolution, that the City would not enforce federal immigration laws, nor share information with federal immigration authorities absent a judicial warrant.
Additionally, Council designated all City facilities and property as safe spaces that the City will not permit to be used to assist or facilitate federal immigration enforcement; and WHEREAS, a 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that 1.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender or nonbinary; and
WHEREAS, the City is committed to transgender equity and has enacted policies to promote this commitment, including providing health plans that offer gender affirming care health benefits to all covered employees; adoption of an all gender restroom building ordinance that requires all new multi-stall restrooms be designed to be gender neutral; supporting LGBTQ+ youth, the City includes protections in its anti-bullying policy that cover sexual orientation and gender identity and strives to ensure access to restrooms and recreational programs based on gender identity, not perceived or birth gender; and WHEREAS, the City’s Out in Santa Monica affinity group supports the Trans Equity Scholarship, in partnership with the LA LGBT Center’s Trans Economic Empowerment Project, to help support those seeking to make their gender and name change official in government records; and
WHEREAS, at its February 25, 2025 meeting, the City Council affirmed its commitment to the protection of Transgender, Gender Diverse, and Intersex (“TGI”) persons, and their right to obtain gender-affirming care as they so choose; and WHEREAS, gender affirming care, as defined by the World Health Organization, encompasses a range of social, psychological, behavioral, and medical interventions “designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity” when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth; and
WHEREAS, the interventions help TGI people align various aspects of their lives— emotional, interpersonal, and biological—with their gender identity. As noted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), that identity can run anywhere along a continuum that includes man, woman, a combination of those, neither of those, and fluid; and
WHEREAS, interventions fall along a continuum as well, from counseling to changes in social expression to medications (such as hormone therapy). For children in particular, the timing of the interventions is based on several factors, including cognitive and physical development as well as parental consent; surgery, including to reduce a person’s Adam’s Apple, or to align their chest or genitalia with their gender identity, is rarely provided to people under 18; and
WHEREAS, “[t]he goal is not treatment, but to listen to the child and build understanding — to create an environment of safety in which emotions, questions, and concerns can be explored,” says a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on gender-affirming care; and
WHEREAS, gender-affirming care is essential to the health and wellness of many transgender and non-binary people, and major medical organizations that collectively represent over 1.3 million doctors in the United States, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, recognize the medical necessity of age-appropriate gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary people; and
WHEREAS, Studies from numerous institutions including Stanford and Yale Universities have shown that gender transition, including access to gender-affirming healthcare, improves the overall well-being of transgender people and access to gender affirming healthcare for youth is associated with better mental health outcomes and lower risks of suicide; and
WHEREAS, health care should not be denied to anyone because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; and WHEREAS, in 2022, the State of California passed Senate Bill No. 107, which protects individuals seeking sanctuary from out of state prosecution and explicitly prohibits law enforcement agencies from knowingly making or participating in the arrest or extradition of an individual pursuant to an out-of-state arrest warrant based on another state's law against receiving gender affirming healthcare in California; and WHEREAS, in 2023, California implemented the “Transgender, Gender Diverse, and Intersex (TGI) Inclusive Care Act” which protects the right of Californians to access gender affirming healthcare services; and
WHEREAS, while California law requires access to such healthcare, there are increasing concerns among the LGBTQ+ community that, as seen with immigration and reproductive health care, federal or other-than-California state investigations will be launched against individuals seeking gender-affirming care, those aiding individuals seeking such care, medical providers providing such care, and organizations that fund such care, particularly those that cross state-lines to do so; and WHEREAS, the City is committed to ensuring that no one who is seeking, obtaining, providing or facilitating gender-affirming care is subjected to criminal penalties, legal liability, or professional sanctions solely for engaging in those actions; and WHEREAS, since the inauguration of President Donald Trump to his second term, he has issued several Executive Orders, including Orders 14168 and 14187, that attack transgender, gender diverse, and intersex (TGI) healthcare and gender-affirming care for both adults and minors; and
WHEREAS, in 2024 alone, 533 pieces of legislation that target the LGBTQ+ community have been introduced across more than 40 states, with nearly half of these bills specifically targeting transgender youth and their families. These bills aim to limit the rights of TGI people by criminalizing gender affirming healthcare, restricting use of public bathrooms, forcing teachers to out their students, and preventing youth from participating in school activities, resulting in reports of attorneys general from Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, and Texas demanding access to medical records to conduct investigations and threaten patients; and
WHEREAS, anti-TGI legislation contributes to violence against the transgender community, contributing to the murders of 35 people in 2023 and 29 people in 2024 in the United States alone; and
WHEREAS, as a result of anti-TGI legislation, many individuals and families are relocating to states that are more accepting and offer inclusive services; and WHEREAS, with the actions taken by this federal administration and other states, it is clear we must establish more protections for TGI persons, their loved ones, and healthcare providers who seek or provide gender-affirming care at our hospitals and clinics in Santa Monica; and
WHEREAS, in order to reaffirm our commitment to safety and access to genderaffirming care for all TGI persons.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Police Department shall not use City monies, resources, and personnel to investigate, question, detect, apprehend, detain, or register persons whose only violation is or may be a violation of civil provisions of federal executive orders or law related to seeking, receiving, aiding, providing, funding, or any other relation to gender-affirming care in Santa Monica or elsewhere.
SECTION 2. The City of Santa Monica shall not use City resources in support of any federal program requiring the unlawful or unconstitutional registration or detention of individuals for seeking, receiving, aiding, providing, funding, or any other relation to gender-affirming care in Santa Monica or elsewhere, and shall not share any data that may have been collected or will be collected which contains any of this information.
SECTION 3. The City of Santa Monica and its staff, including law enforcement officials, within their official capacity, shall not aid in the creation of a registry or database that is based on the acts of seeking, receiving, aiding, providing, funding, or any other relation to gender-affirming care.
SECTION 4. The City of Santa Monica and its staff shall not enter into any agreement that obligates the City, including the Santa Monica Police Department, to perform any law enforcement functions to investigate, question, detect, apprehend, detain, or register persons whose only violation is or may be a violation of the civil provisions of federal executive orders, federal law, or other states’ (not California) laws or to require the registration or detention of individuals on the basis of seeking, receiving, aiding, providing, funding, or any other relation to gender-affirming care, or share any data that may have been collected or will be collected which contains any of this information.
SECTION 5. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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Douglas Sloan, City Attorney